Property Taxes - Exemption Application Amnesty for Nonprofits

While engaged in very public political wrangling about the State's biennial budget during the recent special session, the Indiana General Assembly enacted a number of "non-code" provisions addressing targeted property tax issues, including the exemption process for property owned, occupied, and used for educational, literary, scientific, religious, or charitable purposes. One of these provisions created a short window of opportunity to submit delinquent (or revised) exemption applications for such property, reaching back to all years with assessment dates after March 1, 2000. (Section 479 of House Enrolled Act 1001(ss).)

The catch – new or revised applications must be filed before September 1, 2009. This is not the first time that the State has allowed late-filed or incomplete applications to be corrected, and it may not be the last. But nonprofit organizations who failed to properly file and obtain exemptions in recent years now have a chance to get right with the world (or at least with local assessing officials) during these last few days of August.